Doing a Mail-Art Show>>>Need Your Help!!!

[jon foster]

Hey there mail-art friends, et al.

I just heard that this summer I will be helping co-curate a mail-art show at Wake Forest University in the wonderful city (my city) of Winston-Salem in my wonderful state of North Carolina. Although I’m not asking for submissions, just yet, I am asking for any pointers or ideas etc. about how to make the show as good as I possibly can.

Any ideas or help would be greatly appreciated. Please be honest and direct.

Thank you all for pulling me along in this whole mail-art thing. I’ve been mailing things out to people for over two years and it’s been a great experience. Now it’s time to spread the world to my community about all that goes on with us mail-art people.

[Dean aka Artist in Seine]

Forget the Art Work, you should concentrate on the drinks served at the opening.  My experience is that you should serve only good French champagne.  They’ll be taking about your show in Winston-Salem for decades to come.   Val, back me up here.

[vizma bruns]

Let's hope your community is ready for us mail art people!!

This may sound obvious, but starting a group or separate blog with incoming works is a good idea, as it inspires and encourages people to send stuff in and keeps the whole thing "alive" and rolling. Some MA calls just ask for work and you never see what gets received which is a shame.

Now for a dumb Qu.. is your town where they burnt the witches? Now there's a theme!! :-P

[Jane Smith]

My only advice would be to get as many styles of mail art from as many different artists as you can. I would love to contribute when you are ready !

[Valentine Mark Herman]

Good luck, Jon!

I've found it useful in the past to work with groups of local artists and schools. With the former, I explain the concept of mail art to them, show them some examples of the weird & wonderful stuff I've received from IUOMA over the years, and encouraged them to make me something for my exhibition.

You're a teacher, so you'll know only too well the artistic potential of children if it can be harnassed properly. Last year I got invited into 3 classrooms to, again, explain, show and encourage them to design summer-themed envelopes. The teachers readily supported this project, and it got integrated into their art classes. Some of the kids parents joined in to, and that was good. Is your school/college twinned with any others? If so, you could work on those links.

Also, if Winston-Salem has a twin town, that could open up some possibilities.

Does Wake Forest have an Art Department or anything similiar you can work with?

Besides local artists and schools, local clubs ans associations can also be involved.

What are you going to do for a theme? Have you a specific one, or will it just be 'Send anything'? In my limited experience a themed exhibition is better, but you have to be careful to choose something that is pretty broad so it includes lots of different ideas, talents, interests, etc.

Another thing to consider: how will you exhibit the stuff that you get? Often this is left to the end, but it needs to be addressed early on in the planning stage.

One last thing: look at Ruud's Group 'IUOMA exhibitions 2013' -- you could make your exhibition one of the 25th anniversary Projects. (I have one I'll add to the list later).

Hope this lil list is of some help. If there's anything specific you'd like to discuss, just ask.

Val